Picoglobo Amateur Radio WSPR Balloon
On Saturday, April 8 at 08:00 GMT, weather permitting, Amsat Argentina plans to launch the amateur radio HF WSPR Leila PicoBalloon from the East Argentina coast.
This 24 gram PicoBalloon, with micro Atmel328, of long duration (circumnavigator) would flight around 13,500 meters height, possibly heading to South Africa and beyond.
Its tracker is powered by solar panels and a small supercapacitor, only emits during its day.
It will transmit every 10 minutes its WSPR 25mW beacon in 20m, dial in 14095.6 kHz USB, now active as test from Castelar, Buenos Aires.
The WSPR mode of K1JT is used to send and receive weak signals. It can receive up to 28dB below noise.
The 1st 2-minute broadcast transmits LU7AA, Locator and power in dBm, 2nd, height, temperature and voltage.
WSPR can be downloaded from http://amsat.org.ar/wspr.exe or http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/WSPR2_r1714.EXE
To operate connect PC audio output and input to the transceiver, it can also be coupled acoustically.
If running WSPR mark UPLOAD SPOTS, your reception reports via Internet will be uploaded in wsprnet.
Each report uploaded to http://wsprnet.org/ will allow to see where is the picoballoon, heading, height, voltages, temp, and so on.
It is important to have the largest number of receiving stations, which will help track Leila.
There is a Spanish presentation available at http://amsat.org.ar/wspr.ppt
You could track Leila and see your own reports at: http://lu7aa.org/wspr.asp and / or http://aprs.fi?call=lu7aa-15
Thank you for being part of this experience and if possible disseminate this information.
73, LU7AA, Amsat Argentina
http://amsat.org.ar/
https://facebook.com/Amsat.LU